Shards
by happyday girl
Summary: Tag to 'Through a Glass Darkly- On the way home from the fort Athos notices Aramis is not himself- realising his friend has not been checked over after falling from the window, he and the others take it upon themselves to look after him. Very short hurt/comfort fic.


It was only after the third mile of walking behind the King and his caravan that Athos realised something was very wrong with Aramis. For the most part of their journey back to the Palace Aramis had been quiet, almost uncharacteristically so. Every so often he would look to Porthos and make a joke, chuckling lightly before continuing to walk next to his three friends, but now the afternoon wore on slowly into evening he had begun to quieten; his boots started to drag on the shingle path, sending small rocks skittering in front of them.

His breathing began to deepen and become more laboured than it should be, and more than once Athos had turned to look at him only to find Aramis had squeezed his eyes shut, grimacing.

'Did you get someone to check your head after falling out that window?' He asked, his voice low as they made their way down the dirt road that skirted a large forest. He had obviously not arrived at the fort to ensure his friend had been checked over; he now wished they had made time for it before they set off again.

'I'm alright, Athos.'

'That's not what I asked- did someone look at your head?'

'I picked some glass out that I found, but he wouldn't let me check him any further.' Porthos muttered from a step behind them. Athos sighed and stopped, holding a hand out and placing it on Aramis' chest to stop him from continuing.

'We have to guard the Queen, we-' Aramis protested, but he was cut off as Athos turned to him with dark eyes.

'We need to make sure you're alright first!' He muttered, before looking up and watching as Treville turned his horse round and came up to them.

'Why have you stopped?'

'We need to check Aramis for injuries- he was not looked at before we started heading for home.' Porthos explained, as Athos and d'artagnan busied themselves with getting skins of water from their packs.

'He looks fine to me,' Treville replied, to which Aramis nodded- d'artagnan suddenly cleared his throat before, going on his tiptoes for emphasis, he delicately reached into Aramis' thick hair and pulled out a large shard of bloodied glass, causing the medic to wince.

'Yes, he looks perfectly fine.' Athos deadpanned, looking up to Treville again. 'We won't be more than five minutes.'

'Alright- be quick.' Treville nodded, before moving back towards the front, taking the inseparable's places at the rear of the group.

'We could do this back at the palace, you know…' Aramis muttered- he sighed as Athos pulled him by the arm to sit on a tree stump, and Porthos and d'artagnan began to carefully leaf through his hair, picking shards of glass and large pieces of broken window frame out of his hair and scalp.

'What if one of those shards of glass ended up slicing into your head more?' Athos berated him. 'You'd probably be dead, or at least well on your way.'

'How did you survive that fall, anyway?' D'artagnan muttered, pulling out a large splinter of wood and throwing it to the ground. 'It must've been about five storeys high.'

'I landed on an awning…' Aramis replied, eyes closed as his two friends continued to carefully dig through his hair. 'Would have broken my neck otherwise.'

'We all thought you were dead.' Porthos muttered, voice low. Aramis looked up at that, giving his friend a small smile and hitting his stomach lightly with a gloved hand.

'You can't get rid of me that easily.' He whispered, to which Porthos snorted.

'Right, all that's left is those little bits of glass that hiding right at the scalp…' Athos reported, unstoppering his water skin. 'Brace yourself.' He said, before upending the whole container onto Aramis' head, sending water pouring down his face and onto his uniform.

Aramis coughed and spluttered, before standing up and shaking his head like a dog, shivering with cold.

'I did warm you to brace yourself!' Athos chuckled, before carefully rubbing down Aramis' face and neck to get rid of any lingering glass. 'There, that should be it now- are you hurt anywhere else?'

'I landed hard on my leg when I fell- I'll go straight to the matron for her to check it over when we get back.' Aramis replied, sniffing.

'Good.' Athos turned and saw that they were now quite alone. 'We better catch up with the others, perhaps get you a horse for the rest of the journey home.'

'I'll be alright, I promise.' Aramis smiled, putting a hand on Athos' shoulder. 'I'm not a child.'

'Well, you do certainly need watching over like one.' Athos retorted, quirking an eyebrow at him as Aramis let his hand fall and the four of them continued making their way to the others.

'Fancy being thrown from a window- we'll have to keep a close eye on you from now on!' He muttered, to which Porthos chuckled and d'artagnan shook his head ruefully.

'We'll have to set up guard duty for him so he doesn't get into trouble' The Gascon grinned- Aramis laughed at that, shaking his own head before wincing again. His head throbbed and the cuts on his face began to sting where the water had hit it.

'Come on, lets go home.' He muttered, sighing deeply, before the four of them turned a corner and began walking faster to catch up with the rest of the group.

* * *

 **Thanks for reading- I am (very) slowly making my way through the episodes of season two- I haven't seen any of season 3 yet- and I have to say that this season lends itself really well to continuations or tags, so my muse is going haywire…right now I am formulating a multi-chaptered tag to 'The Return', so that'll be posted after Brothers in Arms.**

 **Anyway, hope you enjoyed this little fic, and please review!**

 **X**


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